


she shoots, she scores (like, every time)

by peraltiagoisland



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Multi, PLEASE JUST TRUST ME ON THIS, also some peraltiago and dianetti sprinkled in, bc im trash, doses of kid!gina and kid!jake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 05:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10269365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peraltiagoisland/pseuds/peraltiagoisland
Summary: AU where everything is pretty much the same except- Gina Linetti is amazing at basketball. And by amazing, I mean there's a high possibility a witch cast a spell on her such that she never misses a shot.This skill of Gina's comes in handy during Jake and Gina's childhood- as well as when Boone challenges the Nine-Nine to a basketball match.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i would like to give a special shoutout to @elsaclack, who is the Best and also gave me great suggestions and support that spurred me to write this. Also anyone else that was supportive of this!!
> 
> I won't say this is something revolutionary but I love it a lot and I just HAD to write it okay pls like this

So here's the thing- Gina Linetti was a basketball genius. No, scratch that. She was a basketball _prodigy_.

Gina's exceptional talent in the sport had no explanation, no causation. She hadn't been bitten by a radioactive basketball, nor did she get a blood transfusion from an NBA player.

It was as if Gina had been born and boom- it was decided that she would be _amazing_. At basketball. And in general. But definitely the basketball thing.

If one were to break down Gina's basketball talent, they would basically describe it as Gina just having magical hands. Because they _were_ magical. Any shot Gina Linetti makes goes through the basketball hoop. Every time. She could be closing her eyes, she could be lying on the floor- the ball would go in.

Gina herself would not be able to tell you when she discovered her god-given talent. Maybe she just assumed she was fantastic at all things and did not specially take into account her ability in basketball because to her it was nothing out of the ordinary.

To Jake however, Gina's talent was definitely something extraordinary. He loved watching her skills at play, which was why he would often convince her to hang out at the basketball court. And yeah, sure, Jake himself did enjoy basketball. He'd train, running up and down the court dribbling the ball, practicing shots, and attempting the occasional slam dunk which would end up a failure.

And what was Gina usually doing during all this? She'd be standing at the 3-pointer line, texting or playing games on her phone and staying out of Jake's way. She was always one to avoid any sort of unnecessary physical exertion, after all. Once in a while however, Jake would turn around and get this excited grin on his face.

"Gina!" He'd call, and Gina would automatically raise one of her hands up, not even bothering to look, and Jake would toss the ball to her.

It didn't matter how she did it. Gina could lob the ball in on the spot (what she usually did), catch the ball and complete a perfect lay-up (without looking), or she could kick the ball in (this happened once when Jake threw the ball wrong, causing it to land at Gina's feet rather than in her raised hand)- and no matter how illogical it seemed, how physics-defying a feat it was; the damn ball always went through the hoop perfectly.

And Jake's jaw would drop wide open, because his best friend could make the likes of Michael Jordan or Lebron James freaking _losers_ on the court.

"Gina! Do a slam dunk!" Jake suggested one day, the brilliant idea striking him hard and making him desperate to see it come to fruition.

"Why?" She groaned, actually looking up from her phone for once. Although she didn't stop texting, so there was that. She seemed pretty unwilling to go along with Jake's plan, because it would require effort and a tiny part of her was also afraid that she would fail.

"Please! It would be so cool. You can do this." He pleaded, considering getting on his knees. But that would be too much, right?

"Fine." Gina relented, the reluctance in her voice still clear as day. She kept her phone in her pocket for once, something which surprised Jake.

He passed her the ball and she dribbled the ball expertly (as usual), before jumping up and slamming the ball through the hoop, reaching altitudes Jake had never seen Gina jump up to before.

"Awwww _no!!!_ " He cheered as he ran up to Gina to give her multiple high fives, high tens, as well as their special secret handshake. Gina, who had actually looked a bit scared before, now looked triumphant and proud. So she was back. "This settles it- you are the best basketball player in the world."

"Keep your voice down, Jakester." Gina replied with a smirk. "We don't want the basketball team harassing me again."

Jake nearly shuddered. "Ugh, those girls were scary. I'll shut up now."

"Yeah. And please- we always knew I was the best basketball player in the world. But I'm never doing a slam dunk again; that was a lot of unnecessary jumping I just don't need in my life."

Jake groaned. "Can't you at least teach me how to do that? I wanna get into the basketball team."

Gina shrugged. "Fine. Although I can't guarantee you'll be able to do it. Some things just require god-given talent to achieve."

Slam dunks weren't the only things that made Gina keep her phone in her pocket, though. Jake, being a reckless and competitive child, traits that he kept well into adulthood, would often challenge random strangers they met on the court to play a game.

Okay, at first it would start with Jake asking to simply play _with_ whomever showed up. Some people were nice, and would play a game or two, going easy on Jake. These people were usually older and nice to children.

Some others however, were not so nice.

"Us? Play with a scrawny kid and a _girl_? Go back home and braid each other's hair." Was one of the more common insults. There might've been the occasional anti-semitic slur thrown around too.

But ladies and gentlemen- that was when the _fun_ would start. For Jake, that is. And maybe Gina too, whether she'd admit it or not.

First, Gina would freeze and stop whatever it was she was doing. Be it texting or gaming, it would all come to a halt as she took in the insults thrown at them. Then, she would slide her phone into her pocket. This power move never failed to make Jake's jaw drop, his eyes dancing with excitement as he used every ounce of his self-control to keep from squealing.

"What did you just say to us?" She would ask slowly, almost dangerously.

"Aw, didn't hear me right? We don't want to 'play' with either of you, stupid girl." Was one of the many retorts those bullies would give, often accompanied with a snicker or two.

"Nuh uh, pasty white boy." Gina's insult would change depending on who they were being bullied by. But her unwillingness to back down was everlasting. "We're not 'playing' together. We're fighting to the _death_ on this court, _against_ each other."

Some people would be stunned into silence by Gina's spirit at this point, some would still continue to laugh boisterously.

"Yeah, you heard me. All of you losers, against me and my boy Ja- _kobe_ over there." Jake would wave, often with a friendly smile. It was the least he could do given the hell their opponents were about to experience after all.

"But... there's only two of you. And way more of us. We're going to crush you." Sometimes their bullies would happen to be people who played on their basketball team in school, but heck, Gina wouldn't be phased even if they were going up against a hundred people.

And neither would Jake, because he had Gina on his side.

"We'll see about that." Gina would say before everyone agreed to the challenge and the "handicap" match would start.

What every single team that had ever had the chance to play against Jake and Gina would soon experience after that could be described as terrifying. Soul-crushing. A fate worse than death.

Needless to say, it was humiliating. Gina would pull out all the stops- she'd do layups, ankle-breaks, slam dunks, and of course, every scoring attempt she made would succeed. Of course, Gina would give Jake opportunities to score and do cool moves too, because she wasn't the only one being underestimated by jerks. And Jake turned out to be a pretty decent player over the years, allowing them to pull off even more crushing defeats. How couldn't he be though, after receiving the tutelage of the one and only Gina Linetti?

 

* * *

 

"Hey, has anyone seen my bagel?" Jake asked as he rummaged through his desk, making it even messier and causing Amy's heart rate to quicken.

" _Second drawer on your right_." Amy informed him quickly, wanting to put an end to his search as fast as possible so that he couldn't make his desk any more disorganized than it already was.

Following her instruction, Jake found his bagel sitting in that exact drawer, in pristine condition.

"Ah, there you are!" He grinned before picking up his bagel, taking a big bite out of it. "Thanks for helping, Ames."

Amy's face scrunched up in mild disgust at his muffled voice. "Ugh, please don't give me any credit for this. I'm embarrassed I even _knew_ where it was."

Jake swallowed and smirked at her, before a thought struck him. "Hey- you happen to know where last week's bagel went?"

Amy looked downright horrified and it quite honestly gave Jake life. "You haven't eaten _last week's_ bagel yet?"

Jake shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not sure."

Amy nearly shuddered and Jake had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. "Third drawer- why do I know this again?"

"Because you're obsessed with me."

"Shut up."

Jake opened the drawer, but what he saw caused him to freeze, and furrow his brow unhappily. This worried Amy.

"What? What's wrong?" Her hands covered her mouth in fear. "Oh no- please don't tell me _Algernon's_ back."

Jake turned to Amy with a scoff. "Hey- Algernon being back would be a good thing. Where's that little guy been anyway? It's been a while."

Amy visibly cringed, this discomfort extending to her fingers as she curled them up. "Stop stop! No more talking about Algernon. What's in your drawer? And do I want to know?"

Jake beckoned Amy over to him. "It's Boone."

Amy rushed over to stare into Jake's drawer, sighing when she saw what the fire department had done this time.

Jake's drawer was filled to the brim with whipped cream. "A huge waste of whipped cream if you ask me," he remarked. Amongst the whipped cream, someone had also stuffed mini doughnuts, spreading them out through the sea of whipped cream.

"No eating any of the mini doughnuts, Jake." Amy instructed, perfectly reading his mind and this knowledge eliciting immediate complaints.

"But they're _good_ doughnuts!" He tried to reach out for one but Amy smacked his hand away. "Ow!"

"Who knows how long they've been there?" Amy spat sensibly.

Just then, Jake got a call. He frowned when he saw the caller I.D.

"Ugh, 'Boone The Best'? Can't believe they hacked into my phone! And please, his caller I.D. should clearly be 'Boone The Goone'. Get it Ames? Because he's such a goon!"

"Answer the phone, Jake." Amy prompted, rolling her eyes at his lame jokes.

"Oh yeah! Nearly forgot he was calling." Jake picked up the phone. "Yes? Whoever this is- why is your caller I.D. 'Huge Loser'? I don't recall meeting any."

Amy snorted at that, and Jake placed a finger over his lips to get her to keep it quiet.

"Whatever, Joke. Yeah, I've met Whitman." Jake pursed his lips uncomfortably. "Did you check your drawer this morning?"

"Yes, I got your stupid whipped cream and doughnut prank. Joke's on you though. Now I won't have to worry about my next few lunches."

Amy grimaced at this.

"Okay, yeah, that was pretty funny. But do you accept my challenge?"

Jake was genuinely confused by this. "What challenge?"

"You playing me right now, Peralta? Too chicken because you know you're going to lose?"

"Uhhhh... no? I actually have no idea what you're talking about dude."

Boone sighed. "There should be a challenge clearly displayed on top of the whipped cream and doughnuts."

"I don't know man, it's just not here. You sure you put it there?"

Boone groaned. "Let me check." Jake heard Boone move away from the phone and upon the indistinct sounds of a conversation that seemed to be going nowhere, Jake decided to rummage through the whipped cream and doughnuts.

"Jake! That's disgusting." Amy chided, but she still continued to watch Jake as he searched through the food mess. Eventually, he emerged victorious.

"Boone! Found the challenge."

"You did?" Boone picked the phone back up, almost happy to hear that.

"Yeah, it was _under_ the whipped cream and mini doughnuts, not on top." Jake informed as he cleaned the cream off the slip of paper, trying to make out the words on the paper.

"Oh, thank god." Boone moved away from the phone again. "See Jackson? I told you you did something wrong!"

"Oh yeah, he messed this up bad. I would've never found out about the paper if you hadn't called. And by the way Boone? _Challenge accepted._ We'll see you in thirty minutes."

"Get ready to be taken down, Peralta."

"Not if we take you down first. Which we will. Bye!" Jake exclaimed as he hung up the phone.

Amy raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"So?" She asked.

"Rally the troops, Ames." Jake instructed as he stared off dramatically into the distance. "We're going to war."

"Wait I don't get it- are we going to fight the fire department or something?" Amy checked, a tinge of skepticism in her voice, which was mostly dominated with worry.

"Oh no, it's just basketball. But we're still gonna crush them." He said, his demeanor lightening up significantly. "You got any open cases? Pressing paperwork you need to do?"

Amy shook her head. "No. Let's go show the fire department what's coming for them."

Jake looked more excited already. "All right! Santiago's feeling it! I was gonna ask you to ditch any work you needed to do anyway- but since you don't have anything to do that's great!"

Jake stood up on his chair, ready to make the announcement. "Attention squad! Boone from New York's 'Best At Spraying Stuff With Water' just challenged the Nine-Nine to a basketball match. Who wants to help me take them down?"

"I'll drop everything to help, Jake!" Charles responded immediately, standing up and rearranging his desk.

"Alright, Charles is in, who else? Sarge? Ya busy?" Jake asked as Terry walked into the bullpen.

"No. What's going on?" Terry asked with a cautious tone.

"Boone. Challenged us to a basketball match. You're coming Sarge, we need you." Jake emphasized with his outstretched finger pointed at Terry.

"The fire department's back at it again? Count me in, Peralta." Terry began doing some stretches. Admittedly, it had been a rather boring day in the crime department. No one was committing any- certainly nothing serious enough to warrant the detective squad and their sergeant's attention. He couldn't wait to go out and stretch his joints.

"Nice! Alright. Who's next? Rosa? You're in right?"

"Sure." Rosa shrugged. "I felt like punching some firefighters this morning."

Jake held his hand up. "You do know that we're playing a basketball match and not-"

"Yup."

"-fighting them right?"

Rosa smirked. "Same difference. I'm punching someone either way."

"All-righty then." Jake turned to face Gina. "Gina! You wanna come?"

Jake made sure not to imply that Gina should play, or would be playing- because after Gina starting being scared of getting kidnapped by the NBA they stopped playing basketball in public as much.

"No, sorry, don't feel like it, no." Gina replied, not even looking up from her phone. Jake accepted it with a resigned sigh.

"You sure, Gina?" Rosa asked as she walked past her table. Gina looked up from her phone and considered this. But she still shook her head.

"No, sorry. I have work to do. Show me the video of the match if you guys win." Gina said apologetically as she went back to texting on her phone and playing games.

Rosa made a slightly disappointed face, but then it dissolved back into her usual expression as she walked away from Gina's table.

"Uh, I think you mean _when_ we win the match, because obviously we're going to crush the fire department." Jake corrected.

"Whatever you say, kiddo." Gina mumbled as she continued to tap on her phone.

 

* * *

 

They got thrashed. By the fire department. Yeah, they were shocked by this too. The squad was generally confident about facing off in sports with Boone's team, because they were generally better than them.

Terry was great at most sports, his physical prowess allowing him to dominate in many games and matches- especially that of football. Rosa was aggressive, Amy was _unstoppable_ when she went into her competitive mode, and Charles... he helped. And as for Jake, he generally handled trash talk with Boone. It was all good.

Except Boone went and got two new firefighters on his team that were _amazing_ at basketball. They controlled the whole game, playing off each other and they were so good the squad didn't even get a shot at fighting back.

The game ended 69-21, and the reason why the score was only at 69 and not higher was because the fire department thought it would be funny to keep the score at 69 and only played defense, which was just humiliating if anything.

Although, Jake couldn't really blame them for doing that.

"Okay, and that's the end of game one! See, Peralta? Told you we'd take you down. Wasn't even a challenge, was it?" Boone asked his teammates, who shook their heads in confirmation.

"We want a time out." Jake requested, because he knew what he had to do.

"Take it." Said Boone. "You can take all the time you need, but it's only delaying the inevitable since we're just gonna thrash you again."

Jake bit his lip in annoyance, but beckoned the squad over for a group huddle.

"Okay, so. That went pretty badly." Jake started awkwardly.

"Y'think?" Rosa grunted in annoyance. The fire department had brought over a stupid referee to make sure they "followed the rules" and no "unnecessary acts of violence" took place or whatever. Rosa couldn't even _look_ at someone the wrong way without being stopped for committing a foul or whatever. In other words, basketball was stupid and she wanted to smack that whistle-blowing jackass of a referee so hard he'd have to quit because his lips wouldn't work after she was done with him.

"I think that we should zoom in on individual performances rather than how we did as a whole." Charles quipped. "For instance, Jake did amazing-"

"Actually, I think how we did as a whole should be the focus here." Terry interjected. "Our lack of team-"

"Oh, clam it Jeffords." Amy spat disrespectfully. "You played the worst amongst all of us out there and you know it."

This came as a bit of a shock yet not really, because everyone knew how Amy got before, during, and after games. Terry let it go, because she was right after all. As it turned out, basketball was not one of his strong suits. He missed way too many shots and dropped way too many balls during the game.

"Anyway-" Jake continued. "As awesome as it was to watch Amy tell the Sarge to shut his mouth-" This caused Amy to realize her insolence and she shot an apologetic look at Terry, who forgave her immediately. "I have a plan on how we can defeat them."

"And why didn't you use this plan before?" Rosa pointed out, to which Amy nodded in agreement.

"Because I didn't think we'd need it, okay? But since Terry's apparently the worst basketball player this world has ever seen, I'm gonna get out my trump card so we can win this thing."

"What is it?" Charles asked.

"Are you finally gonna slam dunk like you said you could?" Amy continued skeptically.

"It's not an actual card, is it?" Terry checked worriedly.

"If you say it's some secret basketball move I will literally stab you in your face."

Jake winced at the barrage of comments he received, especially at Rosa's threat, which he was only half sure she wouldn't follow through with.

"Okay, chill. No, it's not a secret basketball move. Please don't stab me. Also no I'm not going to slam dunk although I totally know how to-" He emphasized this to Amy, who still looked smugly skeptical of him. "And that's a Peralta Guarantee." He cleared his throat. "My secret weapon is all the way back at the Nine-Nine, and will a hundred percent win this game for us."

"You do realize that we were completely wrecked by the fire department just now, right?"

"Yes." Jake acknowledged confidently.

"And we only scored 21 points because Amy threatened to mince the referee if he didn't count each of our free throw goals as 7 points each? And that we only landed 3 shots?"

"Also yes." Jake said, although a bit uncomfortable now as he recalled the humiliating defeat.

"And you're _sure_ your plan will help us win?"

"Yes, yes- and _yes._ Come on guys, just trust me on this! Can we go back to the station now?" Jake whined.

"Fine." Amy groaned. "But if your plan doesn't work I'm going to kill you."

"Fair enough."

 

* * *

 

"Ugh! Why didn't we drive there?" Jake choked as he walked up the final steps leading to their floor in the precinct. The lift had broken down, and as a result they had to take the stairs up.

"Because the basketball court was only thirty blocks away, Jake." Terry reminded as he watched Jake pant his way up. "And seriously? It's just a few flights of stairs. What's the big deal?"

"Try four, Sarge. _Four._ " Jake corrected as he grasped at his knees, trying desperately to catch his breath.

"Honestly, I'm surprised he lasted past the first two flights." Amy teased as she folded her arms, meeting Jake's scowl with a proud smile.

"Anyway, where's your 'secret weapon'?" Rosa asked, slightly frustrated that she had no idea what Jake's plan was and was no where close to figuring it out.

Jake took a final deep breath, and after feeling assured that he had properly caught his breath, he began pacing forth- to Gina's desk.

"Gina!" He called out, and the rest of the squad was confused. No, surely he just needed Gina's help in _locating_ his 'trump card', and Gina- there was no way _Gina_ was Jake's secret weapon, no way, right?

"What?" Gina responded, still texting on her phone, in the exact same position she had been in when they left a few hours ago. It was as if no time had passed in the precinct. Gina didn't even look up when Jake called her, although that wasn't unexpected.

"We got our asses kicked by the fire department. Boone has these two new firefighters that are really good at basketball."

Gina snorted. "Damn. They hot?"

Jake sighed. "The ugliest men you'll ever meet. Come on Gina! Don't you see what I'm getting at?"

Gina looked up from her phone and fixed Jake with a stare. "You know I'm retired, Jake."

Jake sighed. "Can't you come out of retirement just this once? I promise we won't let the NBA kidnap you. Or any other basketball association, for that matter. The Nets won't even _know_ you exist, even though it would be super cool if you joined the Nets, like they could _really_ use your help- anyway, point is..." Jake took a deep breath. "Pleeeeeeeeaaaase??"

Gina sighed and put her phone down. "Fine, fine. Stop. I have some conditions though."

"Of course, shoot."

It is important to note that the rest of the squad, nay, the entire precinct, was still in utter shock and disbelief over what was currently unfolding before their eyes. Except for Rosa, who looked more interested than anything.

"Number one. I get to use my phone. Some jackass on twitter thinks wolves are weak trash and he's about to get a taste of _hell._ "

Jake nodded. "Sure. Of course you can use your phone. We'll call you when we need points and we'll protect you from getting hit all other times."

Amy looked a little baffled at this, and was going to voice out about the dangers of using mobile devices in a sports setting, but was stopped by Terry and Charles.

"Of course you are. Also, I might need you guys to track down this jackass on twitter." Gina continued.

"Sure, sure, whatever you need. Although we can't do anything to him because that would be-"

Gina glared at him.

"We'll... cover up whatever you want to do to him?"

"That's better."

Jake nodded awkwardly. "Is that it?"

"No. Number two- I want all of you to buy me lunch. And do whatever I want you to do."

Jake bit his lip, refusing to turn around in case anyone protested.

"Okay, so. We'll be your personal servants for a day."

"Make it a week or the deal's off."

"Fine."

Gina got up with an almost triumphant grin. "Let's go kick some hot fireman ass bitches!"

"They're not really that hot." Rosa corrected with her arms folded.

"Oh, bummer. It's okay, I'll be too busy to stare at asses anyway."

"Too busy helping us defeat the fire department?" Charles quipped.

"No, too busy putting this fedora-wearing loser on twitter in his place! Boy's 'bout to find out how he'll never be good enough for wolves, and that his mother totally cried and tried to shove him back in her womb when he was born to save the world from such a monster." Gina huffed. "Were none of you listening?"

"God, he wears fedoras?" Rosa noted in disgust. "I'm tracking him down with you."

Gina smiled.

 

* * *

 

"So Gina trained you when you were kids?" Amy asked Jake as they all made their way back to the basketball court by foot, which Jake was complaining about until he started distracted himself by telling Amy stories about Gina and his basketball shenanigans as children.

"Yup. I was completely pathetic at basketball as a kid. She taught me everything I know."

"Did she teach you to yell 'KOBE' every time you try to score?" Amy asked with a tinge of annoyance in her voice, because Jake would do that every. Time.

Jake grinned.

"Nope. That one's all me."

"It's stupid. And well I guess Gina didn't teach you how to slam dunk either because-"

Jake's face was taken over by offense and it was all Amy could do to keep from laughing. He looked so scandalized by her dig at him she had to crack a small smile.

"Hey- I can _so_ do a slam dunk and I'll prove it!"

"Yeah, yeah, you already 'Peralta Guarantee'd it, which doesn't convince me that you can do a slam dunk any more. If you could do a slam dunk, you would've already showed off about it a hundred times."

Jake held his hand up in defense and then paused because he was a little stumped there. "Okay, while you have a point-"

Amy raised her eyebrows expectantly to see what he would come up with next.

"What if I didn't do a slam dunk as often as I wanted to because- every time I slam dunk the force of my arm is so strong it-"

"Nope."

"-starts an earthquake?"

Amy broke then, unable to control her laughter.

"That's just so-" And then her words dissolved into laughter again.

Jake was planning on getting offended but Amy's laughter was so contagious he soon joined her in it. There were few things in the world Jake knew of that were as satisfying as getting Amy Santiago to laugh.

 

* * *

 

The fire department was still not at the basketball court when they reached, apparently still taking a break from the previous game.

"Okay, since we're back early, should we practice?" Terry asked. He looked at Gina. "Not that I don't believe you're good at basketball-"

Gina looked up from her phone.

"Terry tear-bear! You _doubt_ me?"

Terry held his hands up in defense. "No! I just... I need to see it for myself."

Jake folded his arms and clucked his tongue disapprovingly at Terry.

"Oh, Sarge. See, this is why you're terrible at basketball! You haven't seen the basketball god play."

"Basketball god? I wouldn't-"

Right at that moment, Gina had picked up a stray basketball and shot it towards the basketball hoop all the way on the other side of the court, without even looking. The ball slammed straight through the hoop, hitting the ground with a powerful thud and shocking everyone. Except Jake, who was mostly just proud.

"-damn! I, I take everything I said back, Gina. You- you're a basketball god." The rest of the squad too dissolved into excited gushing over Gina's fantastic shot.

"Can't believe I even had to prove it to you, but good that you know."

"Can you show us more?" Charles pleaded, fascinated by Gina's display of talent. It was evident on everyone's faces that they wanted to see Gina's skills too.

"Fine, I'll put on a show. Just got blocked by fedora-loser on twitter anyway."

Unfortunately, just then the fire department walked in. Most of them, anyway.

"Where's Boone?" Jake asked. "And those two dudes from before?"

"They're still eating. They sent us back first because well, seeing how Jeffords is horrible at basketball they thought we could handle you guys on our own for a game or two." One of them replied smugly.

The squad broke out into knowing laughs.

"Oh yeah? Well, while Terry is terrible at basketball-"

"Hey!" Terry protested in offense.

"-you guys so can't handle us." Jake finished smugly before sharply tossing the ball to one of the members of the fire department. It was a bit of a disappointment for Jake to see that they caught it easily.

The guy who caught the ball chuckled. "Well, we'll see about that, shall we?"

 

* * *

 

As expected, without the two basketball jock-equivalents on their team the fire department were easier prey. With the added ease of playing, they were all able to perform, getting a better feel of things and holding their own, scoring points left and right, working in perfect tandem.

Well, maybe with the exception of Terry. The dude just couldn't score no matter how hard he tried. Although he did play good defense given his intimidating build.

In the end, they didn't even pass the ball to Gina that much, like maybe once in a while, but infrequently enough for Gina's skill to fly under their opposing team's radar.

So they won, completely crushing the fire department (minus Boone and those two dudes) in basketball. The whistle blowed signaling the last quarter of the game had ended just as Boone and his two new favorites waltzed in with sodas in hand.

"Someone's late!" Jake announced as he crossed his arms, smirking at Boone who didn't look affected in the least.

"Your mom's late, Peralta."

Jake made a face. "What?"

"Because of me- never mind. How's getting crushed for the second time feeling?"

"Actually-" Terry started, only to be shushed by Jake. He got the message that Jake didn't want him to explicitly inform Boone of their success and clammed up.

"Getting crushed? I wouldn't say that Boone. I wouldn't even say we were crushed at all, not even for a first time."

Rosa gave Jake an incredulous look. "Dude. Come on."

Jake groaned. "Fine- you crushed us the first time. But we're going to crush you back even harder now."

Boone scoffed. "How? What's so diff-" He quickly scanned the crowd and noticed Gina, who couldn't care less about what was happening. "You brought your civilian administrator?"

Gina's typing speed had slowed.

Boone started laughing. "Seriously? Oh no it's a girl! I'm terrified!"

The mocking tone in which he said this caused a large majority of the fire department to burst into laughter, and prompted Rosa and Amy to lunge forth, Rosa especially was already aiming for a punch.

Terrified, Boone flinched and hid behind one of the other firemen. Terry and Charles rushed forth to stop Rosa and Amy lest they got themselves into trouble.

Jake was incredibly angry, as was everyone in the squad, but his anger got overshadowed by what he knew was going to happen soon. He quietly watched Gina, who had stopped texting. Finally.

She looked up at Boone, slipping her phone into her pocket. "What did you just say?"

Boone gulped.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She proceeded to cross her arms. "You think civilian administrators aren't scary?"

Boone was about to open his mouth only to be interrupted by Gina again.

"Actually, Bob from the second floor's the least terrifying person I've ever met. Never mind. But still- how _dare_ you?"

"I'm sorry?" Boone apologized hesitantly.

"Nuh-uh. Not good enough." Gina disapproved with a shake of her head. "I wanna sucker-punch you."

"Me too." Rosa added. She had her arms crossed in a defensive stance, and she was standing... right next to Gina for some reason. No one knew how and when she got so close.

Gina smiled. "We both get to punch you. Amy too." Amy beamed, glad to be included and also given the chance to punch Boone, preferably in the face. "You did kind of insult all women thirty seconds ago. Wait- so that means I get two punches. Since you insulted women and civilian administrators, and I'm both a woman and a civilian administrator. Damn, you messed up good."

Boone had never looked more scared in his life. "Wait... so you wanna punch me right now?"

Gina chuckled. "No, not right now. Although I wouldn't say no to that. We're _playing_ you for four punches. We'll only hit you if we win."

Boone seemed to relax considerably after hearing this, which irked Gina greatly. "Okay, now it's an _extra_ punch from each of us girls. And all the dudes get to punch you once each too because I hate your face."

"What?" Boone tried to control his facial expressions now. "Fine, what do we get if we win?"

"You get to punch Charles."

"What?" Charles protested.

Gina rolled her eyes. "Fine, you get to punch Jake."

Boone looked considerably happier at this.

"Hey!" Jake raised his hands in offense.

Gina shot him a look. "Seriously Jake? You don't trust me?"

"I do, but-"

"Then it's settled!" Gina turned back to Boone. "Do you agree to our terms? Also you aren't allowed to call police brutality on us or anything. If we win and you try to get us in trouble or anything- I'm gonna give Rosa over here full and complete permission to hurt you any way she deems fit."

Rosa flashed Boone a threatening smile and he looked horrified. "Fine fine! I agree to the terms. Let's play."

 

* * *

 

"Diaz! Throw it here!"

Seconds into the start of the game, Gina began taking control. She shouted commands, her confidence and obvious skill spurring on the others to perform up to their full potential.

Rosa channeled her anger and desire to punch her opponents into strategic blocking and proper attacking moves. She was always a safe, short distance away from Gina, ready to take possession of the ball and assist Gina with key passes that would allow Gina to score.

Amy on the other hand, played deep in defense. Whilst she was generally an inferior basketball player with little to no affinity with the ball, she made sure that no opponent of hers would have an easy time when in possession of the ball, smacking the ball right out of their hands such that one of her teammates would get it.

And of course, wanting front row tickets to Amy's competitive edge, Jake played in defense too, occasionally trying his best to slam dunk, which were all failures and earned him a disapproving shake of Amy's head accompanied with crossed arms and a tut every time. Thankfully, his failed slam dunks did not ruin the flow of Gina's plays too much, as she'd catch Jake's rebounds and score once again.

Terry also played a somewhat defensive role, keeping close to Gina so that people from the fire department's team wouldn't be able to block Gina's shots. In essence, he was a human shield and used his large build to keep the other team at bay.

And Charles? Charles cheered for the lot of them, and damnit he landed a couple good passes and scored a goal here or there once or twice during the game too. So yeah- he was helping. And he was helping good.

When the game ended, the score was 69-15, and the reason why it wasn't any higher was because Jake had begged Gina to leave the score at 69. It was a whole thing because a few of the others wanted to get a higher score than the fire department had when they beat them the first time. They eventually compromised by keeping their score at 69, but making sure the fire department didn't get a score past 21.

So as the final whistle sounded, the squad cheered, whilst the fire department just looked despondent, having lost to the Nine-Nine yet again.

Boone was no where to be seen, having went missing sometime during third quarter, which surprised no one.

"Nah, we'll find him some other day." Rosa assured, tapping Gina and motioning that she follow her.

"Wait!" Jake called just as Gina and Rosa turned to walk away. "We need to discuss how we're celebrating this!"

"It's gonna end up being drinks at Shaw's. I need to talk to Gina about... something." Rosa awkwardly explained.

"Come back soon." Terry instructed. "We still have to head back to the precinct. No one called about any reports made to our precinct but paperwork waits for no one. Holt was nice enough to let us take off for a few hours for this."

"Yeah sure, we'll be right here." Rosa assured, indicating that they wouldn't stray more than the ten feet they had already walked away from the group.

"Okay!" The squad huddled together to discuss how they were going to celebrate their victory (which did actually end up being drinks at Shaw's).

"So..." Rosa cleared her throat as Gina looked at her sort of expectantly. "You were pretty good out there. At basketball."

Gina smirked at Rosa incredulously. "I believe we've established that for a while now. What about it?"

Rosa shrugged. "Nothing. Just... it was kinda hot."

Gina grinned.

By the time the squad turned around again, Gina and Rosa were no where to be seen.

 


End file.
